Paicines, California
831-628-3400Bobcat (Felis rufus)
We care for the injured and orphaned wildlife of San Benito County

Nan Pipestem Wildlife Rehabilitation Center is a nonprofit organization
that operates solely on funds from public donations and fundraisers. We
get
NOfunds from any governmental origin.
All the people working for the center are volunteers, with the exception
of the Director of Animal Care, Meredith Day, who became the Director
after Meredith Pipestem retired. The Director is responsible
for the medical treatment and hands on care of the animals that come to
the center. There are five other trained Animal Care technicians, all of
whom are volunteer assistants and follow the prescribed treatments
decided upon by Meredith and the attending Veterinarians.

EDUCATE - to teach the public in how to help prevent injury,
preserve wildlife, and to appreciate the ecological value of every
species

Rehabilitating wildlife is a very serious matter for us.
We cannot release animals that will come up to people to beg
for food.
The animals need to be self-sufficient and live their lives in
the wild with as little human contact as possible, or they risk getting
injured or killed.
Therefore, the animals in our care need to have as little contact
with people as possible. We cannot run a petting zoo and expect
to release animals into the wild that will fear and avoid humans.

FEAR OF HUMANS IS NECESSARY FOR SURVIVAL
Even with all the precautions that rehabilitators took with the California
Condors, you probably have
heard how the condors in the Grand Canyon are not afraid
of humans . One man shot and
killed a condor that got too close to his campsite.
Park officials are looking for ways to keep the birds from swooping
down looking for handouts. They will try to train the condors to fear
humans.

That is what we are striving for--to release wild
animals that fear humans. If not, our deer will approach the hunter,
our raccoons, opossums and skunks will become pests in your yard.
We are serious about helping wild animals to be
wild and free.
For this reason, we cannot be open to the public. But
do visit the animals on this website, where you will see the current
residents as well as the ones that we have successfully released.